SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS OF EDUCATIONAL WASTAGE RATES IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES PROGRAMMES IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study investigated the situations of educational wastage rates in public universities programmes in
Anambra State. Eight research questions guided the study and four null hypotheses were tested at 0.05
level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of
the study consisted of 18,636 respondents (14,674 undergraduates, 3,767 postgraduates and 195
administrators) in public universities in Anambra State. The sample size for the study was 9,978
respondents (8,809 undergraduates, 1,087 postgraduates and 82 administrators) drawn using two-stage
sampling procedure involving purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Researcherdeveloped instrument titled ‘Inventory Proforma for Educational Wastage (IPEW)’ was used for data
collection. The instruments were face validated by three experts who were lecturers from the Faculty
of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The instrument was not subjected to test of internal
consistency due to the fact that it was just employed for gathering existing data. The researcher together
with four research assistants collected data for the study using the direct approach method and 100%
return was recorded. Percentage was used to answer research questions, whereas chisquare was used to
test hypotheses. The finding of the study revealed among others that students recorded low rate of
dropout and high completion rate of undergraduate programme in public universities in Anambra
State. It was also found that students recorded moderate rates of dropout and completion of postgraduate
programme in public universities in Anambra State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among
others that university management should inaugurate a committee to sensitize both undergraduates and
postgraduate students on the need to avoid dropping out from their programme